Ellerston Golf Course

Few courses in Australia carry quite the mystique of Ellerston. Built on the vast Ellerston cattle station in the Upper Hunter Valley, the course was developed by Kerry Packer — one of Australia's most powerful media moguls — as an intensely private retreat for family and a handful of invited guests. Greg Norman and Bob Harrison designed it, and when it opened in 2001 it immediately drew comparisons to Augusta National in terms of its immaculate conditioning and the sheer ambition of its creation. It has consistently ranked among the top courses in Australia and, by some measures, the world — remarkable for a layout almost no one has actually played.

The Upper Hunter is horse country, rolling and dramatic, fed by the Pages River and framed by the Liverpool Range. The landscape gives the course its bones: generous fairways move through river flats and rise into more rugged terrain, with bent-grass surfaces maintained to a standard that shames most public venues.

Since Packer's death in 2005, the estate has remained in family hands, preserving its famously exclusive character. An invitation to play Ellerston remains one of the rarest in world golf — and for those who receive one, the course apparently justifies every word of its reputation.